Scouting for deer in a brand new area can be a challenge. But our group was definitely met the call. Every one saw deer and nearly half the group brought in an Ohio whitetail.

One of the reasons for that was the good deer population coupled with the time frame for the hunt — the beginning of the rut. With over 10,000 acres to pick from there were plenty of places to scout for deer sign and make deer sightings.

Scrapes and rubs were found all over, near deer trails, at the edge of age old woods roads and on ridges. Our hunt was definitely during a prime time.

Most of the hunters used climbing stands and carried them to and from their hunting sites. One of the advantages of a climber is that switching locations is easy. So adjusting stand locations to get closer to areas where bucks were seen was no problem.